Great Rock Albums of the 70s: Styx- The Grand Illusion

This is the last offering in the chapter of great rock albums of the 70s. After a short commercial break in the next two posts, I will be moving onto albums from 1978 exclusively and then every year after that until I get to 1989. 1978 was the year the rivers of rock began to overflow and what the beginings of what was to become heavy metal started to evolve. Therefore, I thought it only fitting to end with what was for me, the very last album before 1978, Styx- “The Grand Illusion.”

I remember back in December 1977, the television ads for the album selling Styx as the hardest working band in rock. I will not debate that and when I first listened to the album, I can safely say that their hard work definitely paid off. “The Grand Illusion” is definitely one of Styx’s best and in my humble opinion, the best except for possibly “Pieces of Eight” which I will be visiting down the line. In “The Grand Illusion,” you have some really great hard rocking tracks like “Miss America” and “Superstar” as well as the big single “Come Sail Away.” There is also a lot of great musicianship on all of the other tracks as well and that is what makes it so good.

Track Listing:

1. The Grand Illusion

2. Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man)

3. Superstar

4. Come Sail Away

5. Miss America

6. Man in the Wilderness

7. Castle Wall

8. The Grand Finale

Styx

Dennis DeYoung- keyboards, synthesisers, vocals

Tommy Shaw- electric and accoustic guitars, vocals

James Young- guitars, keyboards, vocals

Chuck Panozzo- bass, vocals

John Panozzo- drums, vocals

This is a truly great album and for me will always be one of the great classics. I hope you have enjoyed the tour through the great rock albums of the 70s. I know that there are many albums out there I could still mention and I apologise for any I have left out, it wasn’t intentional I assure you. One album I failed to mention and you can blame it on an old man’s swiss cheese memory is “Fly Like and Eagle” by the Steve Miller Band. Here’s a photo to compensate. Meanwhile, I hope you will continue the ride through my tour of heavy metal history.

4 Responses to “Great Rock Albums of the 70s: Styx- The Grand Illusion”

I really, really, really dig “The Grand Illusion”! I had it on “original” vinyl with the huge poster too! Both poster and vinyl were mint. Then, it was destroyed by the flood waters in our basement this past August.

I hope you will be able to replace this iconic album soon. This album really expanded my horizons when I bought it (on 8 track). I did buy a vinyl copy in 1999 off Gemm.com and don’t remember paying that much for it. Thanks for staying on the ride, I hope it only gets better.